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1941

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1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1941st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 941st year of the 2nd millennium, the 41st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1940s decade.

The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, was the deadliest such year. Death toll estimates for both 1941 and 1942 range from 2.28 to 7.71 million each.^[1]

Events[edit]

Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.

January[edit]

• January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Euthanasia CentreinGermany, in the first phase of mass killings under the Action T4 program here.
• January 1 – Thailand's Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram decrees January 1 as the official start of the Thai solar calendar new year (thus the previous year that began April 1 had only 9 months).
• January 3 – A decree (Normalschrifterlass) promulgated in GermanybyMartin Bormann, on behalf of Adolf Hitler, requires replacement of blackletter typefacesbyAntiqua.^[2]
• January 4 – The short subject Elmer's Pet Rabbit is released, marking the second appearance of Bugs Bunny, and also the first to have his name on a title card.
• January 5 – WWII: Battle of BardiainLibya: Australian and British troops defeat Italian forces, the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation takes part.
• January 6
  • During his State of the Union address, President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt presents his Four Freedoms, as fundamental global human rights.
  • The keel of battleship USS Missouri is laid at the New York Navy YardinBrooklyn.
• January 10 – The Lend-Lease Act is introduced into the United States Congress.
• January 11 – WWII: The British Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Southampton (83) is bombed, catches fire and has to be sunk off Malta, with the loss of 81 crew.
• January 13 – All persons born in Puerto Rico since this day are declared U.S. citizens by birth, through U.S. federal law.^[3]
• January 14
  • WWII: Commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin captures the Norwegian whaling fleet near Bouvet Island, effectively ending Southern Ocean whaling for the duration of the war.^[4]
  • In a BBC radio broadcast from London, Victor de Laveleye asks all Belgians to use the letter "V" as a rallying sign, being the first letter of victoire (victory) in French and of vrijheid (freedom) in Dutch. This is the beginning of the "V campaign" which sees "V" graffities on the walls of Belgium and later all of Europe and introduces the use of the "V sign" for victory and freedom. Winston Churchill adopts the sign soon afterwards, though he sometimes gets it the wrong way around and uses the common insult gesture.^[5]
• January 15 – John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry describe the workings of the Atanasoff–Berry computer in print.
• January 19 – WWII: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea in Africa.
• January 20 – Franklin D. Rooseveltissworn in for a third term as President of the United States.
• January 22
  • WWII: Battle of Tobruk: Australian and British forces capture Tobruk from the Italians.
  • InSweden, Victor Hasselblad registers the Hasselblad Camera Company.
• January 23 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress, and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
• January 27 – WWII: Joseph Grew, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, reports to Washington a rumor overheard at a diplomatic reception, concerning a planned surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
• January 28 – Subhas Chandra Bose, the chief of the separatist Indian National Army, reaches Kabul, Afghanistan by successfully evading the British authorities in British India.
• January 30 – WWII: Australians capture Derna, Libya, from the Italians.

February[edit]

• February 3 – WWII: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to the office of Prime Minister in occupied Vichy France.^[6]
• February 4 – WWII: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
• February 5 – The Air Training Corps is formed in the United Kingdom.
• February 5–April 1 – WWII: Battle of Keren – British and Free French Forces fight hard to capture the strategic town of KereninItalian Eritrea.
• February 6 – WWII: Benghazi falls to the Western Desert Force. Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel is appointed commander of Afrika Korps.
• February 8 – WWII: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act.^[7]
• February 9 – Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, tells the United States to show its support by sending arms to the British: "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."
• February 12
  • WWII: Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli.
  • Reserve Constable Albert Alexander, a patient at the Radcliffe InfirmaryinOxford, England, becomes the first person treated with penicillin intravenously, by Howard Florey's team. He reacts positively, but there is insufficient supply of the drug to reverse his terminal infection. A successful treatment is achieved during May.^[8]
• February 13 – Aircraft from British carrier HMS Formidable attack Massawa in Eritrea.
• February 14 – WWII: Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura begins his duties as Japanese Ambassador to the United States.
• February 19–22 – WWII: Three Nights' Blitz over Swansea, South Wales: Over these 3 nights of intensive bombing, which lasts a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes, Swansea's town centre is almost completely obliterated by the 896 high explosive bombs employed by the Luftwaffe; 397 casualties and 230 deaths are reported.
• February 22 – WWII: British cruiser HMS Shropshire bombards Barawa, on the coast between Kismayo and Mogadishu.
• February 23 – Glenn T. Seaborg and associates isolate and discover plutonium, at the University of California, Berkeley.
• February 25 – WWII:
  • The occupied Netherlands starts the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis powers, the "February strike" against German deportation of Jews in Amsterdam and surroundings.
  • British submarine HMS Upright attacks an Italian convoy, sinking the cruiser Armando Diaz.
• February 27 – WWII: The New Zealand Division cruiser HMS Leander (1931) sinks Italian armed merchant raider Ramb I off the Maldives.

March[edit]

• March 1
  • WWII: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, thus joining the Axis powers.
  • Arthur L. Bristol becomes Rear Admiral for the United States Navy's Support Force, Atlantic Fleet.
• March 4 – WWII: Operation Claymore – British Commandos carry out a successful raid on the Lofoten Islands, off the north coast of Norway.
• March 5 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, having been President of the United States for 8 years, 1 day, became the longest-serving president in American history.
• March 8 – WWII: The U.S. Senate passes the Lend-Lease Act.
• March 11 – WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, providing for the U.S. to provide Lend-Lease aid to the Allies.
• March 15 – Richard C. Hottelet is arrested by the Gestapo on "suspicion of espionage", but eventually released in July as part of a prisoner exchange with the U.S.
• March 16 – A group of U.S. warships arrive in Auckland, New Zealand, on a goodwill visit. On March 20, they arrive in Sydney, Australia.
• March 17
  • InWashington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  • British Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin calls for women to fill vital jobs.
• March 22 – Washington state's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
• March 24 – WWII: Rommel launches his first offensive in Cyrenaica.
• March 25 – WWII: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powersinVienna.
• March 27 – WWII:
  • Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnese coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy, sinking 5 warships (the battle ends on March 29).
  • Yugoslav coup d'état: An anti-Axis coup d'état in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia led by General Dušan Simović, Brigadier General Borivoje Mirković, Colonels Dragutin Savić and Stjepan Burazović, Colonel General Miodrag Lazić, Milorad Petrović and many other general officers (with British support) forces Prince Paul into exile; 17-year-old King Peter II assumes power following the coup and Simović is elected new Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.
  • Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu to study the United States Pacific FleetatPearl Harbor, in preparation for a future attack.
• March 30 – WWII:
  • All German, Italian and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into "protective custody".
  • A German Lorenz cipher machine operator sends a 4,000-character message twice, allowing British mathematician Bill Tutte to decipher the machine's coding mechanism.^[9]

April[edit]

• April – The Valley of Geysers is discovered on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, by Tatyana Ustinova.
• April 1 – A military coup d'état, launched by Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani, overthrows the pro-British regime in Iraq.
• April 4 – WWII: Axis forces capture Benghazi.
• April 6 – WWII: Germany, Italy and Hungary invade Yugoslavia and the Battle of Greece begins.
• April 9 – The U.S. acquires full military defense rights in Greenland.
• April 10 – WWII:
  • U.S. destroyer USS Niblack, while picking up survivors from a sunken Dutch freighter, drops depth charges on a German U-boat (the first "shot in anger" fired by America against Germany).^[10]
  • The Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of the Axis powers, is established with Ustashe leader Ante Pavelić as head (Poglavnik) of the government.
• April 12 – WWII: German troops enter Belgrade.
• April 13 – The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact is signed.^[11]
• April 15 – WWII: Axis forces reach Halfaya Pass, on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier.
• April 18 – WWII:
  • The Yugoslav Royal Army capitulates.
  • Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis commits suicide as German troops approach Athens.
• April 19 – Bertolt Brecht's anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children (German: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder) receives its first theatrical production, at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.
• April 21 – WWII: Greece capitulates to Germany. Commonwealth troops and some elements of the Greek Army withdraw to Crete.
• April 23 – The America First Committee holds its first mass rally in New York City, with Charles Lindbergh as keynote speaker.
• April 25 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, criticizes Charles Lindbergh by comparing him to the Copperheads of the Civil War period. In response, Lindbergh resigns his commission in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve on April 28.
• April 27 – WWII: German troops enter Athens.
• April 28 – World War II persecution of Serbs: Gudovac massacre – Members of the Croatian nationalist Ustashe movement kill around 190 Bjelovar Serbs in the village of Gudovac, in the Independent State of Croatia.

May[edit]

• May 1
  • The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOatsbyGeneral Mills in the United States.
  • Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.
  • The first Defense Bonds and Defense Savings Stamps go on sale in the United States, to help fund the greatly increased production of military equipment.
• May 2 – WWII: Anglo-Iraqi War: British combat operations against the rebel government of Rashid Ali in the Kingdom of Iraq begin.^[12]
• May 5 – WWII: Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, which has been liberated from Italian forces; this date is subsequently commemorated as Liberation DayinEthiopia.
• May 6 – At California's March Field, entertainer Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
• May 8 – WWII: The German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin is sunk by British cruiser HMS Cornwall (56) in the Indian Ocean; 555 are killed.
• May 9 – WWII: German submarine U-110 is captured by the British Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine, which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
• May 10
  • WWII: The British House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid on London.
  • Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland, claiming to be on a peace mission.
• May 11/May 12 – WWII: The Ustaše massacre 260–373 Serb men in a Catholic church in Glina, Croatia, where the men have assembled to be received into the Catholic faith in exchange for their lives.
• May 12 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
• May 13 – WWII: Yugoslav General Draža Mihailović and a group of 80 soldiers and officers cross the Drina river in Bosnia and Herzegovina, arrive at Ravna Gora, in western Nazi-occupied Serbia and start fighting with German occupation troops.
• May 15
  • The first British jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, is flown.
  • Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak begins, as the New York Yankees' center fielder goes 1 for 4 against Chicago White Sox pitcher Eddie Smith in baseball.
• May 19 – The Viet Minh is formed at Pác BóinVietnam, to overthrow French rule of the nation, as an alliance between the Indochina Communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the Nationalist party. It will become the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.
• May 20 – WWII: The Battle of Crete begins, as Germany launches an airborne invasion of Crete, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history.
• May 21 – German submarine U-69 sinks the U.S.-flagged SS Robin Moor off the west African coast, having allowed the passengers and crew to disembark.
• May 24 – WWII:
  • In the North Atlantic, German battleship Bismarck sinks British battlecruiser HMS Hood, killing all but 3 crewmen, from a total of 1,418 aboard the pride of the Royal Navy.
  • British submarine HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks Italian ocean liner SS Conte Rosso.
• May 26 – WWII: In the North Atlantic, Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the carrier HMS Ark Royal cripple the steering of German battleship Bismarck in an aerial torpedo attack.
• May 27
  • WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".^[13]
  • WWII: German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing 2,300. It is eventually found in 1989.
  • The Swiss Socialist Federation is banned.^[14]
• May 29 – The Disney animators' strike begins, due to lack of recognition by Walt Disney of his animators' inequities of pay and privileges.
• May 30 – WWII: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas tear down the Nazi swastika on the AcropolisinAthens and replace it with the Greek flag.
• May 31 – Anglo-Iraqi War: British troops complete the re-occupation of the Kingdom of Iraq, returning Prince 'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II.

June[edit]

• June 1 – WWII: The Battle of Crete ends, as Crete surrenders to invading German forces.
• June 4 – Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia are issued by Nazi high-command through OKW. This order (a lesser known precursor to the Commisar Order) explicitly commands that Jews (in addition to Bolshevik partisans and Commisars) be killed. In a sense, this order – in combination with the Commissar Order about to be delivered, and Goring's instruction to Heydrich to look into logistics later in the month, that is mentioned at the beginning of the Wannsee Conference of the following year – inaugurates the European Holocaust of the Jews.
• June 5
  • Second Sino-Japanese War: Four thousand Chongqing residents are asphyxiated in a bomb shelter during the Bombing of Chongqing.
  • Smederevo Fortress explosion: A Serbian ammunition depot explodes at Smederevo on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia, killing 2,500 and injuring over 4,500.
• June 6 – WWII: The Commissar Order is issued by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, requiring all Soviet political commissars identified in Operation Barbarossa among captured forces to receive summary execution.
• June 8 – WWII: British and Free French forces invade Syria.
• June 13 – TASS, the official Soviet news agency, denies reports of tension between Germany and the Soviet Union.
• June 14
  • June deportation: Soviet officials deport about 65,000 people from Estonia, Latvia and LithuaniatoSiberia.
  • All German and Italian assets in the United States are frozen.
• June 16
  • All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed, and their staffs to leave the country by July 10.
  • WWII: British Fleet Air Arm aircraft sink the Vichy ship Chevalier Paul.
• June 18 – The German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship is signed between Nazi Germany and Turkey, in Ankara.
• June 20
  • The United States Army Air Corps becomes the United States Army Air Forces, with the earlier name reserved solely for the new USAAF's logistics and training elements.
  • Walt Disney's live-action/animated feature The Reluctant Dragon is released.
• June 22
  • WWII: Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany (with allies) invades the Soviet Union and declares war on it. Winston Churchill promises all possible British assistance to the Soviet Union in a worldwide broadcast: "Any man or state who fights against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe." Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union.
  • WWII: The First Sisak Partisan Brigade, the first anti-fascist armed unit in occupied Europe, is founded by Yugoslav partisans near Sisak, Croatia.
  • June Uprising in Lithuania: A Provisional Government of Lithuania is established by the Lithuanian Activist Front, in an attempt to liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation.
  • Rapid escalation of the Holocaust in Lithuania: Between now and the end of the year, an estimated 190,000-195,000 out of 210,000 Lithuanian Jews will be massacred, killing an estimated 95% of the nation's Jewish population.
  • Rapid Vienna beats Schalke 04, in the final of the German Fottballchampionship, after 0:3 with 4:3.
• June 23 – WWII: Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the Soviet Union.
• June 24
  • The Soviet Information Bureau, predecessor of RIA Novosti, is founded.
  • Rainiai massacre: Approximately 80 political prisoners are killed by the NKVD in Lithuania.
• June 25 – WWII: Finland (as a co-belligerent with Germany) attacks the Soviet Union, starting the Continuation War.
• June 28 – WWII: Albania declares war on the Soviet Union.
• June 28–30 – The Holocaust: The Iași pogrom takes place, killing "at least 13,266" Romanian Jews.
• June 29 – WWII: Hitler's second-in-command, Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, is appointed as Hitler's successor in a written decree. The decree will come into effect, should Hitler die in the middle of the war. (The decree becomes void in April 1945, after Göring tries to assume power while Hitler is still alive, leading to Göring's expulsion from the Nazi Party.)

July[edit]

• July – The British Army's Special Air Service is formed.
• July 1
  • Commercial television is authorized by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States.
    • NBC Television begins commercial operation on WNBT, on Channel 1. The world's first legal TV commercial, for Bulova watches, occurs at 2:29 PM over WNBT, before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 10-second spot displays a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over "America runs on Bulova time."^[15][16] As a one-off special, the first quiz show called "Uncle Bee" is telecast on WNBT's inaugural broadcast day, followed later the same day by Ralph Edwards hosting the second game show broadcast on U.S. television, Truth or Consequences, as simulcast on radio and TV and sponsored by Ivory Soap. Weekly broadcasts of the show commence in 1956, with Bob Barker.
    • CBS Television begins commercial operation on New York station WCBW (modern-day WCBS-TV), on Channel 2.
  • WWII:
    • German forces capture Riga.^[17]
    • Germany and Italy recognize the Japanese-sponsored Chinese reorganized national government under Wang Jingwei as the legitimate government of China.
• July 2 – WWII: The Empire of Japan calls up 1 million men for military service.
• July 3 – WWII: Joseph Stalin, in his first address since the German invasion, calls upon the Soviet people to carry out a "scorched earth" policy of resistance to the bitter end.
• July 4 – Massacre of Lviv professors: Polish scientists and writers are murdered by Nazi German troops in the occupied Polish city of Lwów.
• July 5 – WWII:
  • Operation Barbarossa: German troops reach the Dnieper River.
  • British troopship SS Anselm is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-96 in the Atlantic Ocean, with the loss of around 250 out of about 1,310 on board.
• July 5–31: Ecuadorian–Peruvian War is fought.
• July 7
  • Uprising in Serbia: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia raises an uprising against the Nazi occupation, beginning when Žikica Jovanović Španac kills two gendarmes in the village of Bela Crkva,
  • WWII: American forces take over the defense of Iceland from the British.
• July 10 – The Holocaust: Jedwabne pogrom: Local ethnic Poles massacre at least 340 Jewish residents of Jedwabne, in occupied Poland. The Jewish residents are locked in a barn and the barn set on fire^[18]
• July 11 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.^[19]
• July 13
  • WWII: An uprising in Montenegro against the Axis powers starts, the second popular uprising in Europe (the first being the "February strike" of February 25 (above) in the Netherlands).
  • Clemens August Graf von Galen, Catholic Bishop of Münster in Germany, preaches the first of 3 sermons against Nazi brutality.
• July 14 – WWII: Vichy France signs armistice terms ending all fighting in Syria and Lebanon.
• July 17 – Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak ends.
• July 19
  • WWII: A BBC broadcast by "Colonel Britton" (Douglas Ritchie) calls on the people of occupied Europe to resist the Nazis, under the slogan "V for Victory".
  • The Tom and Jerry cartoon short The Midnight Snack is released; it is the second appearance for the duo, and the first in which they are officially named.
• July 23 – WWII: Italian aircraft damage the British destroyer HMS Fearless which has to be sunk.
• July 25 – Postal codes in Germany are introduced.
• July 26 – WWII:
  • In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
  • General Douglas MacArthur is named commander of all U.S. forces in the Philippines; the Philippines Army is ordered nationalized by President Roosevelt.
• July 29 – The Vichy Regime signs the Protocol Concerning Joint Defense and Joint Military Cooperation with the Empire of Japan, giving the Japanese a total of 8 airfields, allowing them greater troop presence, and the use of the Indochinese financial system, in return for continued French autonomy.
• July 30 – WWII: Glina massacre of July–August 1941 – The Ustaše brutally kill 200 Serbs inside a Serbian Orthodox church in Glina, Croatia, with a total of 700–1,200 being killed in the area of the next few days.
• July 31 – WWII: The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders S.S. General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question."^[20]

August[edit]

• August – The Political Warfare Executive is formed in the United Kingdom to disseminate propaganda to Germany and its occupied countries.
• August 1 – The Willys MB U.S. Army Jeep is first produced.
• August 5 – The Provisional Government of Lithuania is dissolved.
• August 6 – Six-year-old Elaine Esposito goes to have an appendix operationinFlorida and lapses into a coma, dying 37 years later, still comatose.
• August 7 – WWII: British submarine HMS Severn sinks an Italian Marconi-class submarine.
• August 9 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet on board ship at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter (released August 14), setting goals for postwar international cooperation, is created as a result.
• August 16
  • The Holocaust: Units of the Wehrmacht and the Einsatzgruppen (as part of Operation Barbarossa) start killing Jewish children, signalling the start of the Jewish Genocide.
  • HMS Mercury Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School opens at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire, England.
• August 19 – The Tiraspol Agreement is signed between Germany and Romania.^[21]
• August 21 – In revenge for the execution two days earlier of French Resistance member Samuel Tyszelman, communist activist Pierre Georges (with others) shoots and kills a member of the German military in occupied Paris, initiating a cycle of assassinations and retribution that will claim hundreds of lives.^[22]
• August 25 – WWII: The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and oilfields begins.
• August 27 – WWII: Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre, 23,600 Jews are shot dead by Einsatzgruppen troops and local collaborators in Ukraine.
• August 28 – WWII: Soviet evacuation of Tallinn – German troops capture Tallinn, Estonia from the Soviet Union, while attacks on the evacuating Soviet ships leave more than 12,000 dead in one of the bloodiest naval battles of the war. German forces will capture the entire Estonian territory by December 6.
• August 29
  • WWII: The Government of National Salvation, a Serb puppet state of the Axis powers, is established by General Milan NedićinNazi-occupied SerbiainBelgrade, under military commander Heinrich Danckelmann; the regime includes 15 Ministers.
  • Robert Menzies resigns as Prime Minister of Australia, after losing the support of his party. He will not return to the Prime Ministership until 1949. Arthur Fadden, leader of the Country Party, consequently becomes Prime Minister, while former Prime Minister Billy Hughes replaces Menzies as UAP leader.
• August 30
  • German troopship Bahia Laura is sunk by British submarine HMS Trident (N52); 450 are killed.
  • Germany and Romania sign another treaty, the Tighina Agreement.^[21]
• August 31
  • WWII (Uprising in Serbia): Battle of Loznica: Chetniks capture the town of LoznicainNazi-occupied Serbia.
  • The Great Gildersleeve debuts on NBC Radio in the United States.

September[edit]

• September – The word "Teenager" is first recorded in print as a singular conjoined noun, in Popular Science magazine (U.S.)^[23]
• September 3 – The Holocaust: SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch first uses the pesticide Zyklon B to execute Soviet prisoners of war en masseatAuschwitz concentration camp; eventually it will be used to kill about 1.2 million people.
• September 6 – The Holocaust: The requirement to wear a yellow badge with the Star of David and the word "Jew" (Jude) inscribed, is extended to all Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas.
• September 8 – WWII: Siege of Leningrad – German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Germans deported to Siberia.
• September 11
  • WWII: Charles Lindbergh, at an America First Committee rally in Des Moines, Iowa, accuses "the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt administration" of leading the United States toward war. Widespread condemnation of Lindbergh follows.
  • The Medvedev Forest massacre of political prisoners takes place, at the Oryol Prison in the Soviet Union.
• September 12
  • WWII: The first snowfall is reported on the Russian front.
  • Construction on The Pentagon begins in Washington, D.C.
  • Franklin Roosevelt gives one of his fireside chats, on the USS Greer incident.
• September 14 – The State of Vermont "declares war" on Germany, by defining the United States to be in "armed conflict", in order to extend a wartime bonus to Vermonters in the service.^[24]
• September 15 – The Estonian Self-Administration, headed by Hjalmar Mäe, is appointed by the German military administration.
• September 16 – Rezā ShāhofIran is forced to resign in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, under pressure from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, concluding the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.
• September 16–30 – The Nikolaev massacre takes place in Mykolaiv (Soviet Union); 35,782 men, women and children, mostly Jews, are killed by Einsatzgruppe D and local collaborators.
• September 22 – The town of Reshetylivka in the Soviet Union is occupied by German forces.
• September 23 – The 1941 Texas hurricane makes landfall near Bay City, Texas, causing extensive damage and flooding in Galveston and Houston.
• September 27
  • WWII: The National Liberation Front (Greece) (the main Greek Resistance movement) is established, and Georgios Siantos is appointed its first acting leader.
  • The first liberty ship, the SS Patrick Henry, is launched at Baltimore.
• September 28 – WWII: The Drama Uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins.
• September 29 – WWII: The Moscow Conference begins; U.S. representative Averell Harriman and British representative Lord Beaverbrook meet with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, to arrange urgent assistance for Russia.
• September 29–30 – The Holocaust: Babi Yar massacre – German troops, assisted by Ukrainian police and local collaborators, kill 33,771 Jews in Kyiv.

October[edit]

• Mid-October – The first P-38E Lightning fighter is produced by Lockheed in the United States.
• October 1
  • The Holocaust: The Nazi German Majdanek concentration camp (Konzentrationslager Lublin) opens in occupied Poland, on the outskirts of the town of Lublin. Between October 1941 and July 1944, at least 200,000 people will be killed in the camp.
  • The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy becomes the Royal New Zealand Navy.
• October 2
  • WWII: Operation Typhoon begins, as Germany launches an all-out offensive against Moscow.
  • Tudeh Party of Iran is founded.
• October 5 – The Holocaust: In Berdychiv, 20–30,000 Jews are shot dead.
• October 7 – John Curtin becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Australia, following the defeat of Arthur Fadden's Country/UAP Coalition government, on the floor of the House of Representatives.
• October 8 – WWII: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov, with the capture of Mariupol.
• October 11 – WWII: Armed insurgents from the People's Liberation Army of Macedonia attack Axis-occupied zones in the city of Prilep, beginning the National Liberation War of Macedonia.
• October 11–12 – Fire destroys a Firestone Tire and Rubber Company plant in Fall River, Massachusetts, consuming 15,850 tons of rubber, and causing a setback to the United States military effort.^[25]
• October 13 – The Holocaust: Heinrich Himmler instructs SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik to begin construction of Bełżec, the first of the Operation Reinhard extermination camps.
• October 15 – WWII: British submarine HMS Torbay bombards the port of Apollonia, CyrenaicainItalian Libya.
• October 16 – WWII: The Soviet government moves to Kuibyshev (modern Samara), but Stalin remains in Moscow.
• October 17 – WWII: Destroyer USS Kearny is torpedoed and damaged near Iceland, killing 11 sailors (the first American military casualties of the war, in which the US is at this time neutral).
• October 18 – General Hideki Tōjō becomes the 40th Prime Minister of Japan.
• October 18 – Film The Maltese Falcon is released in the United States, starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Huston.
• October 21
  • WWII: Kragujevac massacre – German soldiers and local auxiliaries massacre more than 2,000 civilian men at Kragujevac, in Nazi-occupied Serbia.
  • Fictional superheroine Wonder Woman, created by William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter, makes her first appearance in All Star Comics #8, "Introducing Wonder Woman", in the US (cover date December 1941).
• October 23 – Walt Disney's fourth animated film Dumbo is released in the United States.
• October 25 – WWII: German fighter pilot Franz von Werra disappears during a flight over the North Sea.
• October 29 – The Holocaust: Kaunas massacre of October 29, 1941 – Over 9,200 Lithuanian Jews are shot dead.
• October 30
  • WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
  • The Holocaust: 1,500 Jews from Pidhaitsi (in western Ukraine) are sent by the Nazis to the Bełżec extermination camp.
• October 31
  • WWII: Destroyer USS Reuben James, on convoy escort, is accidentally torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors.
  • The last day of carving on Mount RushmoreinSouth Dakota.

November[edit]

• November 5 – WWII: The United States holds peace talks with Japan.
• November 6 – WWII: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule (the first time was earlier this year on July 2). He states that 350,000 Soviet troops have been killed in German attacks, but that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration), and that Soviet victory is near.^{[citation needed][26]}
• November 7 – WWII: The Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German aircraft while evacuating refugees, wounded military and the staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that more than 5,000 die in the sinking.
• November 10 – In a speech at the Mansion House, London, Winston Churchill promises "should the United States become involved in war with Japan, the British declaration will follow within the hour".
• November 12 – WWII:
  • As the Battle of Moscow begins, temperatures around Moscow drop to −12 °C, and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time, against the freezing German forces near the city.
  • Soviet cruiser Chervona Ukraina is hit three times in the Severnaya Bay by bombs from German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers from II./StG 77 during the Siege of Sevastopol.^[27]
• November 14
  • WWII: British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks under tow off Gibraltar, after being torpedoed the previous day by German submarine U-81.
  • The Holocaust: In Slonim (Byelorussian SSR), German forces engaged in Operation Barbarossa murder 9,000 Jews.
• November 17 – WWII: Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables to Washington, D.C. a warning, that Japan may strike suddenly and unexpectedly.
• November 18 – WWII: Operation Crusader, a British Eighth Army operation to relieve the Siege of Tobruk in North Africa, begins.
• November 19 – WWII: Battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran – Both commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran and Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney sink following a battle off the coast of Western Australia. There are no survivors from the 645 Australian sailors aboard Sydney.^[28]
• November 21 – The live blues radio program King Biscuit Time is broadcast for the first time on KFFAinHelena, Arkansas; it will attain its 17,000th broadcast in 2014 making it the longest-running daily American radio broadcast.
• November 22 – WWII: British heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire sinks commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, ending the longest warship cruise of the war (622 days without in-port replenishment or repair).^[29]
• November 26 – WWII:
  • The Hull note (Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement Between the United States and Japan), named for Secretary of State Cordell Hull, is delivered to the Empire of Japan by the United States.
  • A task force of 6 aircraft carriers, commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, leaves Hitokapu Bay for Pearl Harbor, under strict radio silence.
• November 27
  • WWII: Germans reach their closest approach to Moscow. They are subsequently frozen by cold weather and stopped by attacks by the Soviets.
  • A group of young men stop traffic on U.S. Highway 99 south of Yreka, California, handing out fliers proclaiming the establishment of the State of Jefferson.
• November 30 and December 8 – Rumbula massacre: Nazi forces kill approximately 24,000 Latvian Jews and 1,000 German Jews outside of Riga.

December[edit]

• December 1 – WWII:
  • Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol under the authority of the United States Army Air Forces.
  • A state of emergency is declared in British Malaya and the Straits Settlements.
• December 2 – WWII: The code message "Climb Mount Niitaka" is transmitted to the Japanese task force, indicating that negotiations have broken down and that the attack on Pearl Harbor is to be carried out according to plan.
• December 4 – The State of Jefferson is declared in Yreka, California, with a judge, John Childs, as governor.
• December 5 – WWII: The United Kingdom declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.
• December 6 – WWII:
  • Soviet counterattacks begin against German troops encircling Moscow. The Heer is subsequently pushed back over 200 mi (320 km).
  • British submarine HMS Perseusismined off Cephalonia.
• December 7 (December 8 – 3:18 a.m., Japan Standard Time) – WWII:
  • Attack on Pearl Harbor: Aircraft flying from Imperial Japanese Navy carriers launch a surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl HarborinHawaii, thus drawing the United States into World War II. The attack begins at 7:55 a.m. Hawaiian Standard Time, and is announced on radio stations in the U.S. at about 11:26 p.m. PST (19.26 GMT).
  • The Japanese declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire is published in Japanese evening newspapers, but not formally delivered to the U.S. until the following day. Canada declares war on Japan.
  • Adolf Hitler makes his Nacht und Nebel decree, declaring that all political prisoners and those involved in both German resistance to Nazism and resistance to Nazism throughout German-occupied Europe are to be apprehended by the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst and other security forces under Heinrich Himmler's control.
  • Tobruk's British and Commonwealth garrison is relieved after Axis forces under Rommel withdraw.
• December 8
  • WWII: The Battle of Hong Kong begins shortly after 8:00 a.m. (local time), less than 8 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japanese forces invade Hong Kong, which is defended by British, Canadian and local troops. The United Kingdom officially declares war on the Empire of Japan.
  • WWII: The Japanese Invade Shanghai International Settlement, to occupy the British and the American sectors, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
  • WWII: The Japanese invasion of the Philippines begins 10 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japanese forces invade Luzon and destroy U.S. aircraft on Clark Field.^[30]
  • WWII: President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his "Infamy Speech" to a Joint session of the United States Congress at 12:30 p.m. EST (17.30 GMT). Transmitted live over all four major national networks, it attracts the largest audience ever for an American radio broadcast, over 81% of homes.^[31] Within an hour, Congress agrees to the President's request for a United States declaration of war upon Japan, and he signs it at 4:10 p.m.
  • WWII: Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, the Free French, Yugoslavia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras also officially declare war on Japan, and the Republic of China declares war on the Axis powers.^[30]
  • WWII: Japanese forces attack British Malaya and Thailand.^[30]
  • WWII: The German advance on Moscow (Operation Typhoon) is suspended for the winter.^[30]
  • The Holocaust: The Nazi German Chełmno extermination camp opens in occupied Poland, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem. Between December 1941-April 1943 and June 1944-January 1945, at least 153,000 Jews will be killed in the camp.
  • The Holocaust The first mass gassing of Jews begins at the Chełmno extermination camp on December 8, 1941, when the Nazis use gas vans to murder people from the Lodz ghetto.
• December 10 – WWII:
  • British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore.
  • The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea officially declares war on Japan.
• December 11 – WWII:
  • Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The U.S. responds in kind.
  • Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her first propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
• December 11–13 – WWII: Battle of Jitra: Japanese compel British troops to withdraw from their positions in Malaya.
• December 12 – WWII:
  • Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
  • British India declares war on the Empire of Japan.
  • The United States seizes the French liner SS Normandie.
  • The Kimura Detachment of the Japanese Imperial forces occupies Legaspi, Albay, Philippines.
• December 13
  • WWII: The United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa declare war on Bulgaria; Hungary declares war on the United States; and Honduras declares war on Germany and Italy.
  • WWII: The Battle of Cape Bon is fought off Cape Bon, Tunisia: Italian cruisers Alberico da Barbiano and Alberto di Giussano are sunk without loss to the Allies.
  • Sweden's low temperature record of −53 °C is set in a village within the Vilhelmina Municipality.
• December 14 – WWII: The Independent State of Croatia declares war on the United States and the United Kingdom.
• December 15 – WWII: At Drobytsky Yar, 15,000 Jews are shot dead by German troops.
• December 19 – WWII:
  • Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Nazi Army.
  • Raid on Alexandria: Italian Regia Marina divers on human torpedoes place limpet mines on ships of the British Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet in port at Alexandria, Egypt, disabling battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant.
  • Twelve days after the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, the United States Naval AcademyinAnnapolis, Maryland graduates its "Class of 1942" a semester early, so as to induct the graduating students without delay into the U.S. Navy and/or Marine Corps as officers, for immediate stationing in the war.^[32]
• December 21
  • Thailand and Japan sign a military alliance.
  • The Holocaust: The Stanisławów Ghetto is established.
• December 22 – WWII: The Arcadia Conference opens in Washington, D.C., the first meeting on military strategy between the heads of government of the United Kingdom and the United States, following the latter's entry into the war.
• December 23 – WWII: A second Japanese landing attempt on Wake Island is successful, and the American garrison surrenders, after a full night and morning of fighting.
• December 24 – WWII:
  • British forces capture Benghazi.
  • Dutch submarine HNLMS K XVI is the first Allied ship to sink a Japanese warship, sinking the destroyer Sagiri near Sarawak; K XVI is herself torpedoed the following day by Japanese submarine I-66.
• December 25 – WWII:
  • The Battle of Hong Kong ends after 17 days, with the surrender of the British Crown colony to the Japanese.
  • Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland, the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.
• December 26 – WWII: Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
• December 27 – WWII: British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Vaagso, causing Hitler to reinforce the garrison and defenses, drawing vital troops away from other areas.

Date unknown[edit]

• The Classic Comics series is launched in the United States, with a version of The Three Musketeers.
• Chosun Tire and Rubber Manufacture, predecessor of South Korean tire brand Hankook, is founded in a suburb of Seoul (at this time part of the Empire of Japan).^{[citation needed]}
• Factory Canteen, predecessor of Compass Group, global license food service and contract caterer, is founded in England.^{[citation needed]}

Births[edit]

January[edit]

• January 1
  • Asrani, Indian actor and director
  • Dardo Cabo, Argentine journalist, activist (d. 1977)
  • Martin Evans, British biologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate
  • Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, Somali politician, 5th President of Somalia
• January 3 – Shima Iwashita, Japanese actress
• January 4
  • Maureen Reagan, American political activist (d. 2001)
  • John Bennett Perry, American actor, singer and former model
• January 5
  • Harvey Hall, American businessman, politician (d. 2018)
  • Chuck McKinley, American tennis player (d. 1986)
  • Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese film director, screenwriter
  • Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Indian cricketer (d. 2011)
• January 7
  • Iona Brown, British violinist, conductor (d. 2004)
  • Frederick D. Gregory, African-American astronaut
  • John E. Walker, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• January 8
  • Graham Chapman, British comedian (Monty Python's Flying Circus) (d. 1989)
  • Boris Vallejo, Peruvian painter
• January 9
  • Joan Baez, American singer, songwriter and activist
  • Reza Sheikholeslami, Professor of Persian Studies (d. 2018)
• January 10 – José Greci, Italian actress (d. 2017)
• January 11
  • Dave Edwards, American musician (d. 2000)
  • Gérson, Brazilian footballer
  • Pak Seung-zin, North Korean footballer (d. 2011)
  • Jimmy Velvit, American singer/songwriter
• January 12 – Long John Baldry, English singer (d. 2005)
• January 13 – Pasqual Maragall, Spanish politician
• January 14
  • Faye Dunaway, American actress
  • Milan Kučan, Slovenian politician, 1st President of Slovenia
• January 15 – Captain Beefheart, American singer (d. 2010)
• January 17 – Mircea Snegur, 1st President of Moldova
• January 18
  • Bobby Goldsboro, American pop and country singer-songwriter
  • David Ruffin, African-American singer (the Temptations) (d. 1991)
• January 19 – Pat Patterson, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2020)
• January 20
  • Clift Tsuji, American politician (d. 2016)
  • Allan Young, English footballer (d. 2009)
• January 21
  • Plácido Domingo, Spanish opera singer, conductor and arts administrator
  • Richie Havens, African-American musician (d. 2013)
  • Ivan Putski, Polish-American professional wrestler and bodybuilder
• January 22 – Rintaro, Japanese anime director
• January 24
  • Neil Diamond, American singer, songwriter
  • Aaron Neville, African-American singer
  • Dan Shechtman, Israeli chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• January 27
  • Bobby Hutcherson, African-American jazz musician (d. 2016)
  • Beatrice Tinsley, English astronomer (d. 1981)
• January 28 – Fernando Serena, Spanish footballer (d. 2018)
• January 29 – Robin Morgan, Poet, author, political theorist, activist, journalist, lecturer, and editor
• January 30
  • Gregory Benford, American author and astrophysicist
  • Tineke Lagerberg, Dutch swimmer
  • Dick Cheney, 46th Vice President of the United States
• January 31
  • Dick Gephardt, American politician
  • Eugène Terre'Blanche, South African farmer, pro-apartheid activist (d. 2010)
  • Jessica Walter, American actress (d. 2021)

February[edit]

• February 1
  • Karl Dall, German comedian, singer and television presenter
  • Jerry Spinelli, American author
• February 3
  • Dory Funk Jr., American professional wrestler
  • Howard Phillips, American politician (d. 2013)
• February 4
  • Laisenia Qarase, Fijian politician (d. 2020)
  • John Steel, English drummer
• February 5
  • Stephen J. Cannell, American director, producer (d. 2010)
  • Henson Cargill, American country music singer (d. 2007)
  • David Selby, American actor
  • Barrett Strong, American Motown singer-songwriter (d. 2023)
  • Kaspar Villiger, Swiss politician
  • Cory Wells, American rock singer (Three Dog Night) (d. 2015)
• February 6 – Stephen Albert, American composer (d. 1992)
• February 8
  • Nick Nolte, American actor
  • Jagjit Singh, Indian singer, composer and musician (d. 2011)
• February 9 – Kermit Gosnell, American abortionist and serial killer^[33]
• February 10 – Michael Apted, British film director (d. 2021)
• February 11
  • Sergio Mendes, Brazilian jazz musician
  • Sonny Landham, American actor (d. 2017)
• February 12
  • Hubert Marcoux, Canadian solo sailor and author (d. 2009)
  • Naomi Uemura, Japanese adventurer (d. 1984)
• February 13
  • Sigmar Polke, German painter
  • Bo Svenson, Swedish-American actor
• February 15 – Florinda Bolkan, Brazilian actress and model
• February 16 – Kim Jong Il, Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (d. 2011)
• February 18 – Irma Thomas, African-American singer
• February 19 – David Gross, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• February 20 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, America singer^[34]
• February 22
  • Hipólito Mejía, President of the Dominican Republic (2000-2004)
  • Yau Leung, Hong Kong photographer (d. 1997)
• February 27 – Paddy Ashdown, British politician, diplomat (d. 2018)